Is there a secret formula to writing killer blog posts that will ensure followers, comments, growing business and popularity? Let me tell you there is. But before you get too excited, hear me out: While there is indeed a magic formula for creating amazing blog posts, it’s by no means a cakewalk.
How can this be? Read on to find out what makes a blog post amazing:
• Be Yourself: I’ve lost count how many times this simple advice has changed fortunes, and yet gets ignored. If you wanted to stand out in the online world, would you copy what others are doing? Of course not! Then why blog about the same breaking news and trends that everyone else is talking about? Be brave enough to stand out and write about things that matter to you; really, that’s all there is to “cultivate a writing style”.
• Go easy on choice of words: When you have to talk to the masses, the simplest of messages work best. Big words and complicated sentences might look good in a novel, but will definitely strangle your blog. Salespeople know this, and that’s why they try their best to simplify the information presented and help reach the buying decision quicker.
• Pay attention to your tone: Tone, or voice, is the magic quality in writing that nobody has been able to pin down to this day. It’s not visible on the surface, but is the most powerful influencing agent. Try not to get too formal or highbrow in your writing, otherwise people might fall asleep halfway through you blog post; and then, while they might thank you for the refreshing nap, they’ll definitely never come back!
• The opening: For grabbing the reader’s attention, your blog must have a good opening. And how do you achieve that? By writing down whatever comes to your mind – and reworking it until it starts shining. Ironically, creativity is mostly about making enough effort in the right direction rather than sitting and waiting for inspiration to strike.
• The layout matters: The human eye is extremely sensitive to layout. This means that cluttered text and long paragraphs are the perfect nightmare for a reader. You want readers to stick around, so you should pay attention to paragraphs, indents, bullets, highlighting, and other such considerations.
• The right headline: The headline decides whether or not people will want to read your blog post. So while it must be captivating, it should not so creative as to lose all hold on comprehension. For instance, a blog post on personal finance that is titled “The secret key to everything you want, and much more” is not only misleading, but uninteresting to those looking for financial advice.
• Leave out the proverbs: Proverbs and other similar colloquialisms look good only in ancient texts and obscure tribal societies, but your blog must be spared the pain of them. If you tell your readers that they should make hay while the sun shines, you will only succeed in putting them off.
• Did you spell-check?: There is just no excuse for poor spelling these days. Every browser comes with a spell-checker, and you’ll save yourself many reputation points by reviewing the words underlined in red before you hasten to publish. It’s also a good idea to write the post in a word processor first and then transfer it to the blog (after running a spell-checker, that is).
• Make it short: Unless you are sure your readers are endowed with superhuman patience, and are forgiving to a fault, short and snappy blogs work best. If your blog is running into thousands of words and many pages, perhaps you just wrote a whitepaper. Or an ebook. Remember, bullet or pointer works wells.
• Decency pays: Note that when I tell you to stand out, I don’t mean to use swearwords. No matter how angry you are about something, or how helpless you feel about a mistreatment, peppering your blog with the f-words is not going to send out the right message.
Phew! That wasn’t half as magical as you were expecting, probably. But hey, success is not achieved by magic, but patient work in the right direction. This post described the elements of a successful blog post; now it is up to you to make the effort and convert it into reality. All the best!
